The first race of the season at Melbourne has always been a favorite with drivers, especially when, as has been the case so far, the sun has been on parade at the Albert Park circuit. Scuderia Ferrari Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen is looking forward to the weekend, as his SF71H car will hit the track tomorrow for P1 practice at 12:00 local time.
“We are pretty happy with how winter testing went; we have clearly done our homework, even if obviously there are always things that you can improve. Our aim is always the same, to win races. We’ll try our best and hopefully we’ll achieve that. Overtaking is quite difficult at this track, but the DRS zones are different this year and hopefully it will help. This year’s cars are fitted with the Halo system: I don’t think that it makes any difference when driving as you get used to it very quickly. From this weekend and in the next few races we’ll start to understand where we are. We need to build up a solid weekend, score good points and then go from there. It’s going to be a long season and we need to be up there all the time to be able to challenge for the championships.” – the Finnish driver said, as reported by Scuderia Ferrari’s official website.
Kimi Raikkonen also explained that Formula 1’s ongoing fuel limit takes part of the enjoyment out of racing with the need for conservation which had been compounded by 2018’s heavier cars. Given the introduction of the Halo cockpit protector for the 2018 F1 season, the minimum weight of F1 cars has been raised to 734kg but the fuel limit has been kept at 105kg of fuel per race (without exceeding the fuel flow rate of 100kg/hour). Despite the current F1 technical regulations encouraging faster and more efficient cars, the added weight has had a major impact on drivers having to manage fuel usage depending on circuit characteristic.
With the Albert Park street circuit known to be highly-demanding on fuel, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen is bracing for a strict fuel management for the 2018 F1 season opener and is concerned it denies drivers the chance to push their cars to the maximum: “Obviously some races are more difficult than others and it depends between the teams and all kinds of conditions. It’s not always fun. We have enough size in the fuel tanks to put in more fuel to go full speed, but that’s the rules and it’s been like that for a while. It is a part of the game now and it’s a bit more painful in some places than others.” – the 2007 Formula One world champions concluded, ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
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